Brescia coach Fabio Grosso explained leaving out Mario Balotelli for their defeat to Roma.

Balotelli was missing after a training ground row in midweek.

“I am the coach of this team and I saw Brescia's promotion campaign in Serie B, with very few changes, so they were powered by that enthusiasm.

“Defeats take away some of your confidence and my job now is to help them rediscover that belief in complicated situations, because we've got the character.

“We will always end up talking about Mario, because the media love to pay attention to anything he does," continued Grosso.

“I told Mario from the start that he can be a protagonist of this team if he has the hunger, determination, aggression and enthusiasm, the kind of characteristics he has often lacked during his career.

“As I said, he's the one who has to make the decision. We're at the bottom of the table and need more than just a striker who can hit the ball hard and score when he gets it. We need someone ready to work for the team, fight hard off the ball and throughout the 90 minutes.

“If we have someone like Mario who struggles to put himself at the disposal of the team, then Brescia are not in a position to support him in that role."